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(sing it!) The Cows Fought the Plumbing, and the Cows Won!

We had a 'no hot water' call at the farm the other day. The stove worked ok, but the HWT would light and die, light and die. I opened the drip leg and cranked open the gas stop....

psst...then nothing...

Hauled my butt up to the gas well about 2000 feet away...what do I see? The piping coming off the main is all twisted and the meter is laying on its back. Not to mention the loud hissing noise and the meter dials spinning like crazy. It's a leased gas well and are allowed 200,000 cu.ft. per year (remember this number, it's important later).

After shutting down our line here's what I found:

That's a perfectly bent 1" black iron pipe. It's supposed to be straight, yet looks like it was bent by a professional. The union (not shown) was broken off at the threads at ground level (left side of the pipe in the pic). The pipe got dug to below grade with my backhoe and I replaced it and straightened all the pipes and meter back to the main well. Fortunately, no debris got into the pipe.

Apparently, something spooked the girls and they tore off towards the woods. They average 1000-1300 pounds and I'm kinda surprised not one of them appeared injured. Also odd was that there was enough pressure over such a long distance to still run the stove but not the HWT, though, the main pressure averages about 50 psi.

Oh, and the gas usage for one day? 272,000 cu.ft. Way more than one YEAR's usage...

Cattle can tear up a lot even if there not spooked, just rubbing can destroy a lot, I should post some pictures of the old pasture pick up, LOL, poor old Chevy. no mirrors tail lights, bent in a lot of places, and well polished or was, in some places,

I bet one of them just getting that spot that was needing a good rubbing,

Push sticks/blocks Save Fingers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good."
attributed to Samuel Johnson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PUBLIC NOTICE: Due to recent budget cuts, the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil...plus the current state of the economy............the light at the end of the tunnel, has been turned off.

amen to the tearing stuff up comment. i remember one old farmer i worked for who had (only) 1500 cows at the time. he was a wise old army veteran and told me "those damn things eat money and sh1t work." he was so very right, especially since the milk price is down and all other costs are up. he passed away a few years ago and his sons obviously havent learned as they now have over 2500 milking...

ours rubbed on the well parts all the time. couldnt get them to stop...too many nubs, caps, and valves for good scratching action. maybe one had an itchy tit.

the cows keep teating up the Items I had in the corral for a rub or scratch items.

my son picked up a old beet topper, basicly had a flail mower in it, I took that cyclinder with all the flails on it and dug a hole as deep as the tractor post digger would go, and cleaned it out, put that in the corral and it has been working for the last few years, aobut 1/4 8" pipe with all kinds of flalles on it and lots of places they atach, on the hydrants we have by tanks, I put a RR tie on the sides and then nail on 2x6 and leave jsut enough room to get you hand in between the boards to hook up a hose or what ever, I have one I will have to work on as I moved the tank the brass hose bib is wore off at about 45 angle from them being able to get in to and rub, on the end of it,

Push sticks/blocks Save Fingers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good."
attributed to Samuel Johnson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PUBLIC NOTICE: Due to recent budget cuts, the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil...plus the current state of the economy............the light at the end of the tunnel, has been turned off.

P.P. This Gas well Buss. is foreign to Me. Any Pix of this ,and How it works ? Tanks Tool

I'll get some pics when it stops raining (again). But generally, a company comes in and provides a lease to drill a well. They also generally allow a metered hookup and provide X cubic feet per year. Anything over, and you get a bill, less royalties. The drilling is completed and the parent company takes over maintenance of the main, any connecting lines, and connected equipment up to the customer's meter.

Most of the systems around here have 2 drop pipes about 5500 feet or so down. They contain the gas transfer line and any tools to maintain the well base. Above ground there is a waste water holding tank, driers, regulators, monitor gauges, line chart monitor, and scent additive containers. Some wells, like ours are being retrofitted to solar operated automatic maintenance controls for water removal and such.

It looks complicated but it's pretty simple. Basically a deep, lined hole, fracked/dynamited and allows high pressure gas to come out. The pressure varies from well to well. Ours averages 50-150 psi, yet the well across the road is over 800 psi.

Comment

Not only cows cause rub damage, our hydro utility has problems with bears and other large wildlife rubbing on the wood utility poles. Some of the poles have been rubbed to half their diameter and need replacing every few years.

I wonder how you'd secure it for your earthquake issues? Oh, and it costs over $500,000 to drill one now. Average for around here, with the equipment, is 500k to 1m dollars, whether it produces or not.

Push sticks/blocks Save Fingers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good."
attributed to Samuel Johnson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PUBLIC NOTICE: Due to recent budget cuts, the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil...plus the current state of the economy............the light at the end of the tunnel, has been turned off.

on the irrigation wells (we pasture the corn stocks in the winter), we use portable corral panels, and on a temporary fence we just set/pin together, on more permanent situations we use a few posts to keep in place,

the one picture I posting shows a walk in gate as well, they come in a number of diffrent grades, and weights, but for out in the boonies and as a keep out fence a light duty panels works, well.

Personaly I am suprized the gas cmpany has not put one up,

but that sagging one wire fence is a joke,

one thing that is nice with the heaver panels (like the green ones) is they have a reuse value, and can be moved if necessary for access reasonably easily,

the livestock panels, the wire ones can do a good job as well but harder to move and need more posts to keep up right.

Push sticks/blocks Save Fingers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good."
attributed to Samuel Johnson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PUBLIC NOTICE: Due to recent budget cuts, the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil...plus the current state of the economy............the light at the end of the tunnel, has been turned off.